Gee, Our First Album
Gee, Our First Album is the first studio album by the American pop and rock band The Rock-afire Explosion. It was originally released in August 1982 on Creative Records, a Polymer Records imprint. Production and recording The album was recorded in 12 weeks in 1981 in Auckland, New Zealand at Stebbing Studios. The album was produced and recorded by Polymer Records Midwest promotions representative Artie Fufkin, since the band had no money to hire a professional producer. Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk engineered the album, but had Polymer put the "Alan Smithee" pseudonym in place of his after having to berate Beach Bear for "using a stupid voice." Three tracks, "Sal's Birthday", "Baseball", and "Satisfaction Medley" were recorded at the Auckland Civic Theatre using the Polymer Mobile Machine mobile recording studio, and were engineered by Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel, who also used the Alan Smithee pseudonym. "Beatles Medley" was recorded at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee, with Sir Denis Eton-Hogg, Polymer president since 1972 (credited as Sue Donym), as producer and recorder. Since the Rock-afire was "just a bunch of kids with cheap parents and musical instruments and equipment found in pawn shop dumpsters", Nigel and the other two leading members of Spinal Tap paid for the flights and studio cost for the Rock-afire, confident that the band would become famous. The recording sessions were a source of frustration for everyone involved. Florian found the band unwilling to experiment or deviate from their early demonstrations of recorded songs. Beach Bear stated in 1996 that "we were overtly resistant to that German weirdo's ideas. His band Kraftwerk made up synth parts and really cool sounds for almost every part of the album, but we refused to use most of them, since we wanted '50's standards, not '50's standards being raped by Kraftwerk's standards while we watched from the sidelines and took photos." Beach Bear used his La Baye 2x4 "Six" on the album. He played the guitar using a 1938 Gibson EH-150 amplifier. Upset over the EH-150's clean sound, he used a Electro-Harmonix Frequency Analyzer pedal and a 1962 Maestro Fuzz Tone pedal to "enhance" the sound of the EH-150. Dook mainly used a 1979 Yamaha 9000 drumset outfitted with Remo Rototoms above the rack tom-toms for the album. Promotional tour The "Gee, Our First Tour" promotional tour was done to promote the album. The tour stopped in New York City (at the Minskoff Theatre), Philadelphia (at the Spectrum), Poplar Bluff (at the Rodgers Theatre Building; sold out at half price), Sheboygan (at the Sheboygan Municipal Auditorium and Armory; sold out at 99¢, plus Hmong American community debacle), Chicago (at Chicago Stadium; the power failed during "Sal's Birthday"), Akron (at the Akron Civic Theatre; Devo debacle), Richfield Township (at the Richfield Coliseum; farmer debacle), Grosse Pointe Farms (at the Punch and Judy Theater), Leominster (at the Oak Street Armory), Austin (at the Paramount Theatre; Beach Bear caught listening to Anita Bryant debacle), Nashville (at Opryland USA), Pocatello (at the Holt Arena), Seattle (at the Kingdome), Honolulu (at the Hawaii Theatre) and Los Angeles (at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena). Dates were scheduled but canceled in Nashville (at the Ryman Auditorium; moved to Opryland USA because seating arrangements looked ridiculous), Boston (at Case Gymnasium), Atlanta (at Underground Atlanta; cancelled due to fears of noise complaints), Fitchburg (at the Fitchburg Theater), Fairfield (at Maharishi International University), and Des Moines (at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium). Concert T-shirts with CANCELLED iron-on decals over the cancelled dates are now collectors’ items because manager April Eton-Hogg had many recycled for fabric when the tour ended. Promotional music videos Four music videos were produced for this album. "Little Sister" was mainly filmed at the Auckland Town Hall and showed Dook playing a 1979 Yamaha 9000 drumset outfitted with Remo Rototoms above the rack tom-toms while Beach Bear plays his red 1966 La Baye 2x4 "Six" electric guitar. Beach is seen singing into a Ronco Mr. Microphone wireless microphone, while Dook and Fatz use Vega microphones. An early version of the Tune Machine synthesizer is seen in this video, this one having 4 legs. "Baseball" was filmed at a Little League ballpark in Alaska, and shows Beach Bear and Mitzi Mozzarella playing baseball. "Light My Fire" shows Dook singing the song as he walks through De Wallen in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. According to Dook, some prostitutes gave him odd looks as they filmed the video. A video clip of the Rock-afire at Nigel Tufnel's daughter's birthday party was filmed to accompany "Sal's Birthday" and was used in performances of the song late in the band's era of performing at Showbiz dinner theaters. Personnel 'The Rock-afire Explosion' * Billy Bob Brockali - Bass guitar, cigar box guitar, vocals * Dook LaRue - Drums, vocals * Beach Bear - Electric guitar, electro-acoustic guitar * Fatz Geronimo - Synthesizers, keyboards, organs * Mitzi Mozzarella - Vocals, electric guitar (tracks B1 and B6) * Looney Bird - Vocals 'Production team' * Florian Schneider (credited as Alan Smithee) - Engineer (All tracks except B6) * Sir Denis Eton-Hogg (credited as Sue Donym) - Producer and Recorder (Track B6) * Artie Fufkin - Producer and Recorder (All tracks except B6) * Nigel Tufnel (credited as Alan Smithee) - Engineer (Tracks B3, A6, and A5) * Rick Matter (Polymer Record Production Team) - Mastering * Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines - Band and Crew Transportation * Kraftwerk - Musical Blandishments, Final Mix * Melissa Eton-Hogg - Art Direction * Crusty Kahane - Sleeve Photography * Mackie's Barbershop and Salon, Miami - Hairdos * Stuart Eton-Hogg - Makeup Special thanks *Eldred Stebbing (Stebbing Studios) - For the usage of Stebbing Studios *Our Moms and Dads - For all your help *Sir Denis Eton-Hogg - For production assistance 'Management' *April Eton-Hogg, 132 Sunset Boulevard, Room 195, Los Angeles, California, 90028 Category:Albums